Soooo frustrated. Feel free to skip!
So I have spent the summer, like I did last summer, getting up at the crack of dawn almost every morning of the week and walking anywhere from 2.5 to a little over 3 miles. Typically under an hour! I get up – ON MY VACATION – because it’s too hot if I don’t get out before 8 AM. I have better things to do on my summer vacation than getting up as early as I do to go work, things like sleep or write.
But I digress.
Last year I was on Weight Watchers, and I walked, and I sort of kept to the diet. As a result, after 8 weeks, I hadn’t lost an ounce. Not one ounce. I weighed the exact same as I did when I started. I had dropped a dress size, in the bottom, but that was it.
Fast forward to just before Memorial Day. I had lost weight over the winter months due to illness. I had had labs during Spring Break 2.5 months before. My A1C was over 12, everything was up, we suspect is now up higher and crazy numbers and my doctor mentioned the word ‘insulin’.
Which I’m not having any part of.
So I spent the summer, getting up and walking again – 2.5 to 3 miles 5 to 6 mornings a week. I was SERIOUS about the diet. Oatmeal pretty much EVERY morning. Yogurt or Salad pretty much every day for lunch. Yes, we did Mexican a few times. Yes, we went Chinese a few times – I stayed away from the rice and the fried stuff. I have pretty much quit drinking cokes. I’m all water or coke zero now. No white foods. Lots of healthy steamed veggies. The Diabetic Cook books. We grill a lot! I’ve dropped ANOTHER dress size.
I have ugly elbows, but wha-hey!
Either or! I was serious about it.
I had labs last week.
The only good news was my A1C DID come down to single digits, but just barely. My cholesterol is still up, my triglycerides are still high (although I’ve seen them higher) my good cholesterol is still low (although they were close to normal and I’ve seen them down in single digits, which is zombie.
And the worst was according to the scale, I hadn’t lost a pound. In fact, it said, I had gained a pound. Granted, it was close to lunch, I had eaten, and my doctor gave me the same old – you know muscle weighs more than fat and granted between the time you’ve made changes to the time we redid labs has only been 6 weeks rather than 3 months…
I’m so frustrated. No. Dammit, this is depressing. I feel I’ve worked my tail off for nothing. Again. a dress size down and I SHOULD see a difference on the scale.
Yup. That’s how I feel.
If you sat through this rant (which is your own fault as I put it behind a cut) at least have some Richard.
Have you seen this one? I love it, except… what is with the mouth? Did you eat a lemon, honey????
I do love this last set.
zee's muse 
Know the feeling.
I’ve gained 5 pounds. It sucks. But really, you look great! So if your sugar is low and your A1C is down and you are obviously smaller, isn’t that all a good thing in only 6 weeks? I think so! (I was just reading that because of the life span of red blood cells, the A1C should only be done every 3 months.)…, but by the way, why is Richard’s arm so so skinny in that picture?
At times, my sugar gets high, but then I crash at around 4 PM. It’s high the next morning because I’ve done things to bring my blood glucose up during a crash. We’ve halved my glimpermeride, which is good news. We’ll see if that helps the crashes. I’m doubling my garlic and my apple cider intake, trying to bring down my cholesterol.
I’m not quitting (well, walking for this next week) and I’m not giving up, but I’m pissed. And frustrated. I’d love to say I lost 10 pounds this summer. I can’t say that. I think most of us rate weight loss in pounds. That’s wrong, but it is.
I have no clue why Richard’s arm is so skinny there. I didn’t notice.
We did my A1C labs in March. But we didn’t take action on it until late late May. So when we do my A1C again in November, hopefully, we’ll see better results.
Keep at it. I’m sure the rest of the results will be coming.
How weird! Surely the dress size tells you what you need to know… and I’m assumimg you feel better because of the exercise? I can understand the frustration though! 😕
Like I just told Sue, I think many of us see getting healthy as weight loss. How many pounds we’ve flushed down the toilet, exercised off. And from that particular perspective, I’ve failed. But yeah, I’m down a dress size. My blood sugar is coming down. We’ll wait and see what happens with my next lab, which will be in November.
I know this is rich coming from me (as I have whined and ranted about lack of weight-loss in blog posts myself), but your post made me think that we need to separate our weight-loss journeys from numbers. Or at least dress size numbers or pounds and kilos. Inches and centimetres are probably more meaningful. Because your doctor is right – with your vigorous walking programme, it is more than likely that you have turned fat into muscle. You have done your body and your well-being a great service. Never mind that the number on your scales doesn’t match up with your expectation. You look great in your new dress, and those shoes are very sexy, btw! Well done!
I LOVE those shoes! I need black dress shoes and I might buy a pair of those in black. We’ll see.
That dress is one of three I purchased – which One I’ll wear for my brother’s wedding. I’ve not decided. The few people who have seen all three like this one the least. (Although I like it the most)
As I’ve discussed, I think many people mistake getting healthy with weight loss. Yeah, we’re fixated on those pound (or kilo) numbers. We should – I should – fixate on the lowering A1C. The lowering blood glucose. The lowering dress size.
It’s still frustrating.
I know, it *is* frustrating… I haven’t actually weighed myself in a couple of weeks because I don’t want to see the numbers. But the good thing is that I *feel* healthier, lighter and (somewhat) thinner, and I am focussing on that. I even bought a garment today *lol*. Mind you, it’s only a nightie. And the frustrating thing was that I had to buy the 2XL version (because I do not like skin-tight nighties). Arrrgh.
I don’t own a bathroom scale. I’ll probably have that on the household list sooner than later. Most likely later as we’re returning to school and I’ll use the nurse’s scale in the infirmary.
I buy big in nightshirts and jammies as well. I don’t want to feel confined under the blankets! LOL!
It’s probably a good thing that you don’t scales. The temptation to check your weight is always there…
And yeah, totally not into tight nightwear. Except on men *hoho*
I prefer my man’s nighttime attire is nonexistent!
I knew you would say that… 😂
Girl, you look great. Keep up the good work. Sometimes it pays not to listen, Do what your doing, it’s working..
You look great Zee, and gorgeous shoes!
I find it very hard to ignore that number on the scales myself, even though I know that the tape measure is a better indicator of how I’m tracking. The benefits of your hard work are there, unfortunately they’re just not as easy to see as the number on the scales.
Thank you
Although I don’t know you I can relate sooo much to
this post. I joined Orangetheory which is nationwide
in the States 2 years ago to lose like 25-30 pounds
They even sent me email to say Happy 2 year
Anniversary. I just started to cry bec I think I
have lost maybe 5 pounds in that time. I
have struggled w body imaging issues my whole adult life
I used to run marathons in my 30s but now my version of
a marathon is jogging around the block of my neighborhood and then eating a donut bec my blood sugar crashed from the jog. I have found that pacing yourself by the
scale is toxic to yourself. I know people will be like how will I quantitate (is that a word?)that the scale tracks the weight but it is my enemy and really plunged me further
down a rabbit hole. Stick to the walking metabolism
is the key so what you are doing is working ie down a dress size cutting out comfort foods. Stress plays a huge role in weight gain and loss so hang in there you look fabulous in that pic and besides Guytherapy I find retail
therapy to work wonders. Hope this wasn’t
over the line.
before I had my son , I was a model – stick thin, lean, all of that. I’ve struggled with my weight since I had him and he’s 30 now. Add to that a high-stress job and diabetes, I’m a glutton for punishment. I’m going to have to find somewhere to walk after work and just pound out my frustrations because this will be a frustrating year.
I have no vices – except retail therapy. I had hoped to be in a place to not have to buy clothes this year (it’s my only vice) but everything I bought last year – Spring and Summer 2017 – are rather baggy on me. I have 2 dresses I can’t wear they are so big on me. So, things are going to the back of the closet for now until I can have them altered. Or just wear something else – lol!
If you are interested, I would like to invite you to our healthy RA blog – RABBBWW. Basically, Richard Armitage’s Bold, Bodacious, and Beautiful Well Wishers. We’re like an international Weight Watchers. We share happy and sad and recipes for getting healthy D**t is a nasty 4 letter word that triggers some (me) people, so it’s not said.There is no judging, no shaming, just great support and lots of Richard pictures. That’s the only real rule – post your recipe and post a Richard picture. It’s great motivation! I hope you join us!
https://rabbbww.wordpress.com/
That D word is a huge trigger for me also and I
would love to join but here’s the thing I am not
a techie and by that I mean I lurked ( a word
I recently learned is the technical term) for a
while before diving in to comment so I can share
recipes, support stories, I thrive around honest
down to earth people which is one reason I like
your blog, Guylty’s, SueBC and where it all started for me Servetus soo much but I don’t know how to post
the Guy The Man’s pics. I could never do my own
blog bec of the semantics and technical basis one
needs for it. I am deeply touched for the invite so…..
I am a techno phobe so we’ll talk to Guylty for you. Starting your own blog is easy, even if you don’t post in it. I totally stupid when it comes to technology and I have this and the RABBBWW blog, so no excuses. It’s easy-peasy! And if you want to lurk, that’s okay, I think you should be able to comment and stuff.
Ahh shucks I’ll do a Richard here and hang my
head and say thank you or bless you
So join up and get a free blog – it’s easy and I’ll collar Guylty about getting you on over at RABBBWW. It’s a great place. At least, I think so!